A new Wi-Fi standard could let different mesh routers work together

Over the past three years, mesh routers — which allow you to combine two, three, or even more routers into a single network to blanket your home with Wi-Fi — have become increasingly popular. But they’ve all had one major limitation: you have to buy all of your routers from the same company. That means if you ever wanted or needed to switch brands, you’d have to buy every unit over again.

But that may be about to change. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees the use of Wi-Fi standards, is introducing a new standard called EasyMesh, which will allow router manufacturers to make mesh routers that work with mesh routers from other companies. As long as both routers support EasyMesh, you’ll be able to put them on the same network.

This is a pretty huge, consumer-friendly change that could help mesh routers become more common. Assuming it’s widely adopted, you’ll eventually be able to buy any router you want and add it into your network, rather than getting locked into the — likely expensive — system of whatever router company you bought from first.

But there are some big hurdles. Companies love lock-in: the current system forces customers to stay with one manufacturer, and any manufacturer that’s doing well in the mesh router market probably likes that. Mesh router companies won’t be required to adopt EasyMesh, either. So we have to hope that router companies will voluntarily choose to support it. And right now, none have announced their support. In a press release announcing EasyMesh, the Wi-Fi Alliance doesn’t have a single supporting quote from a router manufacturer.